Johannesburg - University students across South Africa are waiting with bated breath to hear whether or not a fee increase will be on the cards for 2017.
Minister for Higher Education Blade Nzimande is expected to make an announcement regarding fees at 11am.
In a statement, the Wits Student Representative Council's (SRC) secretary general Fasiha Hassan said they would be forced to act “should the minister fail to address the urgent call for free education and seek to divide the student movement by putting forward a haphazard fee increment for 2017”.
The Wits SRC also encouraged students to gather at Solomon Mahlangu House to watch Nzimande's announcement, which will be made from Pretoria.
The students also said they rejected that the commission set-up by President Jacob Zuma was “investigating the mere feasibility… of how to realise free and quality education”.
“We are tired of talk shops and task teams without implementation. We reject them in their entirety,” Hassan said.
Meanwhile, the University of Cape Town suspended lectures and tests on Monday as a precautionary measure in lieu of the announcement.
. @TheCapeArgus @IOL Students have blocked the south and north entrances of @UCT_news #FeesMustFall2016 pic.twitter.com/GwWdp168vw
— Gadeeja Abbas (@Gadeeja_Abbas) September 19, 2016
UCT vice chancellor Max Price told EWN that despite students wanting free education “we can pretty sure that the minister is not going to announce free education, certainly not now or at least for next year”.
This comes amid protesting at Stellenbosch University late last week where students were forcibly removed by security during a library sit-in on Friday.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has also been shut over the past few weeks due to unrest but plans to reopen on Tuesday.
Earlier this month several buildings at UKZN were set alight, including a law library.
#FeesMustFall2016 was also trending on Twitter on Monday morning with students expressing their thoughts on the matter.
@motheo_matlala said she would “spearhead the whole thing is that's what it takes,” but @SkhumbuzoTuswa felt that “#FeesMustFall2016 was just gonna turn into a Students vs Authorities scenario from what I've seen recently”.
@Kxng_Breed said he saw #feesmustfall2016 coming and was okay with it. “”We will stand up and stand tall.”
@VusiChauke said #FeesMustFall2016 was never about a 0% fees increment. “It has been about free education. 0% is useless to the poor.”
The Star